Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
You’ve seen the disclaimer when you look at a company’s quarterly results or your retirement portfolio:
“Past performance is not an indicator of future results.”
You know what that means—those outstanding results from the previous quarter or year may never occur again. Buyer, beware.
But unlike many of us and our investment strategies, God’s an optimist. Time and time again, the Almighty takes a chance on us, regardless of how awful and displeasing our past performance was. Gossiping? Lying? Cheating? Abuse? Adultery? Murder? It all can be forgiven—if our spirit is contrite, if we acknowledge our errors and pledge to do better with God’s help.
Sometimes, we don’t look back; we honor the covenant. But more often than not, we backslide; maybe not to where we once were, but not where we pledged to be. Past performance, it seems can be an indicator of future results.
The glory thing is that God’s optimism is boundless. He has more faith in us than we do in Him or in ourselves. And if He believes our future performance can be better than in our past actions, maybe with His help, it can be.
